龙门　　：：　Dragon Gate

Well, I'm back. Online, that is. I've just moved to a new apartment which, joy of joys, has a broadband connection. The last two days have basically been given over to catching up on all the sites which I haven't had time to read when I've been limited to cybercafe access.I still can't access blogspot.com, so can't read the blogs there, including this one...

I'm still in Beijing, and still enjoying myself. Since my arrival, the icy winter has receded into memory and the weather is getting hot. Today has seen some heavy rain, for a change. I finished my course at then end of last month, and I'm here independently for a few weeks, just revising what I've learned, taking some martial arts lessons, and hanging around cafes.

So, how is my Mandarin? Well, not great, I have to say, but certainly I know much more than when I arrived in February. I have difficulty communicating with the locals, but this is partly because the local accent is incomprehensible! (Well, that's my excuse, anyway).

As for Beijing itself, I love it, like almost all of the 'first-timers' I know. Beijingers are lovely people, warm, friendly and always smiling. As when I first arrived, I love the 'can-do' (keyi) attitude here. There's a constant sense of change, of growth and opportunity here. Of course, there are also the standard travel-article contrasts of old and new, wealth and poverty, which are no less affecting for being cliches. Every day I see something which makes me gasp or laugh, and think once again, 'I love Beijing'. Of course, I've done all of the usual sights - and I would do them again if I had time!

I've also met some fantastic people. Being a student in a school for foreigners naturally means that my daily contacts are mostly other foreigners, and I've been lucky that so many are great people - the Americans, British, Australians, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, Japanese and Koreans, all! It can be difficult to break out of this cocoon to meet some actual Chinese people, but I've got to know some, of course, even if most of our conversation has to be in English!

I am looking forward now to starting my MBA. I'm going to Singapore in June for registration, and will have a few weeks to hang out, doing preparatory reading... and practising my Mandarin!